Air fryers are great for making tasty, crispy meals without a lot of oil since they use convection cooking technology to heat up your food quickly with hot air instead of cooking it in hot oil like a basic fryer. Since fryers vary wildly in size and cooking capacities, when you're looking for the best air fryers for a family of four or more, zero in on models that have a capacity of 5 quarts or larger. These larger capacity fryers can easily make enough food for a four-person meal or cook up appetizers for an even larger group to keep your parties and get-togethers fed.
When you’re choosing an air fryer, you’ll want to consider the best option for your family. While a basket-style air fryer is the most common, there are also oven-front air fryers that come with a shallow basket or removable racks. The oven-style loaders usually offer larger capacities than basket style air fryers. Plus, the shelves often allow other options like toasting and food dehydrating, depending on the model. One of my picks is even a toaster oven and air fryer in one for extra versatility. However, basket-style air fryers tend to have a smaller footprint for the same capacity and are easier to store away.
Additional functions and accessories like shake reminder timers, adjustable temp range, cake barrel, pizza pan, skewer rack, and muffin pan are also great to have when cooking for a large family if you'll use them.
To help you choose the perfect addition to your kitchen countertop, here’s my list of the best air fryers for a family of four. Each of these top picks is available on Amazon and has plenty of reviewers to back it up.